Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Low-Fat Layered Pumpkin Cheesecake

This is Johnny's signature Thanksgiving dish. He found it on Yahoo's main page in 2007 and has made it the three Thanksgivings since. It is the only dish I've ever seen him make 100% by himself from beginning to end.

It's gooood. And, to make you feel a little bit better about your thighs, it's low-fat!

2 (8 oz.) pkgs fat free cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
dash ground nutmeg (the real stuff makes all the difference, listen to Alton Brown!)
1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
whipped topping/cream (optional)

Mix cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla on medium speed until blended. Add eggs and mix until blended, taking care not to overbeat. Remove 1 cup of batter to a small bowl and stir in pumpkin and spices.

Spray 9" pie plate with cooking spray and sprinkle the bottom with the graham cracker crumbs. Pour plain batter onto crumbs, then top with the pumpkin batter.

Bake at 325° for 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Cool and then refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or overnight. If desired, top each slice with whipped topping/cream.

Because it is layered with plain and pumpkin, the taste is not overpowering at all, instead very subtle. Johnny's sister swears she doesn't usually like pumpkin desserts, but had two small slices of this.

Makes 8 servings, each with 137 calories, 19 g carbohydrates, 2 g fat, 9 g protein, and 16 g sugar.


Blogger Secret Ingredient (BSI) this week is season-appropriate cinnamon chosen Emily at homecookedem!

It's also the last day to enter Hey, What's for Dinner, Mom's? Blogger Gift Exchange. I'm already signed up and can't wait to receive my secret blogger!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love the stats on that cheesecake! And he makes it all himself?? Awesome!

Fitness Surfer said...

I am so glad i found your site. I'm a huge fan of pumpkin pie and cheesecake but had no idea how to make it healthy. Over Thanksgiving i had the two together and ohhhh it was good but only a once a year good. I might make this next year for the Fam. Thanks =)

Laura said...

oh this looks so good! I need a good lighter version of pumpkin pie and I like that he makes it all by himself!

Thanks for the shout out :D

Lele said...

That sounds practically healthy! I had full fat pumpkin cheesecake on Thanksgiving, and it was awesome, but this one is actually something I could eat more than once a year!

Anonymous said...

I actually don't like pumpkin desserts, either, but I will give this a try after hearing that Johnny's sister likes it as well!

Allie (Live Laugh Eat) said...

Wow you just brought pumpkin cheesecake to a new layer...I mean level :) Love graham cracker crumbs!!!

Judy said...

It looks wonderful and I love that it's low-fat -- definitely a winner in my book.

Ping said...

Hi! I found your blog on the TOH Dec/Jan2010 magazine. So glad to find this low fat version pumpkin cheesecake to make for my husband.
Will have to read through your posts for sure.

Karine said...

Great pumpkin cheesecake recipe! thanks for sharing :)